Finished reading King of Thorn manga few hours ago. You know what? Marco Owen is BADASS. Yeah, Mr. Macho for sure. He looks like he's a darn thug but here's a spoiler. He's actually a hacker that seems really similar to Hei appearance-wise. But that was like, what, two years ago before the entire manga started! Two years could turn a frail hacker into Mr. Muscle with badass tattoos. And probably thug hairstyle but it's achievable by just not cutting your hair. Okay, so enough of Marco Owen. Sorry, I couldn't help but rant about Marco. I don't normally like guys like him but damn! He's hot stuff! *cough cough cough* Moving on to the story...
King of Thorn / Ibara no Ou is a manga with 37 chapters by Iwahara Yuji. MangaFox has it listed under these genres: Action, Adventure, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Sci-fi, Seinen, Tragedy.
It's Action simply because it's action packed. There's never much of a moment where the survivors can truly relax in the beginning.
Adventure. Well, it's always an adventure if you're stepping out into a world where you don't know anything anymore.
Horror, yes, horror. No zombies or ghosts out there to bite at their asses but hey, "there's dinosaurs"! There is the occasional gore too for the unlucky ones...
Sci-fi. I do not need to explain that. The summary shall explain itself.
Seinen? Yes, it is a serious and heavy story. It requires your rusting brain to think a little while reading.
Tragedy? People die! That's why! Don't worry. Few of them come back to life.
There's a reason as to why I did not really mention Romance though. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE romance. I love it to the point where I scavenge for shoujo / josei manga whenever I'm bored. I even play otome / BL games just for that romance factor! So why am I skipping out on romance?
King of Thorn is set in a world where there's a virus called Medusa going on. Those infected with the virus will eventually petrify and their body starts to become clay-like. (The manga will do a better job at explaining how you die with Medusa infected rather than me.) 160 people are chosen to be cryogenically frozen until a cure for the virus is found. Among the 160 are those who have bought their places and those who were lucky enough to be chosen. For the lucky ones, they don't need to pay a single cent. Sounds good, right? It's too good to be true! You're damn right. After an unknown period, Kasumi (the main protagonist in the manga) wakes up, along with a few others. Not all 160 woke up, only a few. Naturally, they wake up feeling happy, thinking that a cure has been found because that's the very purpose they had been put to sleep for! Wrong. They were tossed into a world of monsters, monsters, thorny vines, monsters, and more monsters. Did I mention vines with thorns? Basically, they woke up in a world that's already fucked. Without a cure! So they're fucked too! But they don't know it yet. You can find this much from summaries. Beyond this could be considered as spoilers. But don't depend too much on it. I'm, as usual, just ranting about the manga.
Even in the beginning, a huge number of people has died. How? A huge monster ate them, no joke. The mangaka was kind enough to show us flying limbs, you see. So that's where the gore comes in. There's not really much of blood flying about though. It's subtle, yet a little disturbing.
At a first glance, you'd think that the seven survivors who survived the first monster as a random group. Truth is, they're not. They consist of a fat ass senator, badass macho hacker, nerdy scientist/engineer, student, little boy, motherly woman, and a semi-badass man. Aye, a random hodgepodge they sound to be! Exclude the senator though because he got his fat ass eaten by monster eels. But he's not completely useless. He was the one who identified Mr. Macho Badass as Marco Owen, the dangerous hacker who hacked into CIA. And made the group temporarily hostile to Marco. Gee, thanks, you fat bastard. You were a whiny fat bitch about Marco being a dangerous man and so on. But I guess you can't completely be hated because you encouraged Marco in the end. Long after you died. To huge ass motherfucking monster eels! Whoops! Spoiler!
Basically, you're introduced to Kasumi first because the story is mostly told from her perception. She has a twin sister whom she has promised to find after Kasumi has woken up. There's a mindfuck in the ending which consists of the twins.
Kasumi appears to be a weak girl in the beginning. There's no denying that she's weak but she's downright courageous. She matures more and more as the series progresses, eventually becoming rather attached to Marco. More to like her falling in love with him. Can't blame her. He's Mr. Macho after all. He's saved her life a few times and she has done the same. It initially started with her saving him and he returns the debt. It continues throughout the series but it isn't counted as a debt anymore after the first time. She's very close to her sister, Shizuku, till the point where she almost committed suicide when she found that only she was chosen to be cryogenically frozen. She couldn't stomach a life without Shizuku so Kasumi tried to suicide only to be stopped by the former. This greatly disturbs their bond as twins and some crazy shit happens right before Kasumi enters the lab to be put into sleep. I literally mean it when I say "crazy shit". One of them got killed and became a major factor to the world being terrorized by monsters. Who? I won't tell. But Marco somehow manages to figure out everything a few moments before the end, but begins to trust her, towards the end. Yes, I love repeating "the end".
Now, now, the rest of the survivors aren't just cannon fodder. Each of them has a role, backgrounds that carries the plot on. Remember the motherly woman? Her name's Katherine. Remember the little boy? His name's Tim. Right from the very beginning, Katherine cares for Tim as if he's her son. She holds his hand, hugs and comforts him, protects him- basically everything a mother would do for her child. Why does she do it? She's a mother, obviously. And an alcoholic. She treated her own son, Michael, like crap. She abused the poor kid on like what? A daily basis? No one knows but well, Michael got carted off to foster care. And that was when Katherine started to really regret her actions so she cares for Tim the exact way she had always wanted to care for Michael. What about Tim? Ah, he's a kid that got separated from his mother because he was one of the "lucky" 160. He's pretty determined to live for a kid, all because he wants to find his mother again. Oh, and Tim calls Katherine as "Aunty". Katherine's actually pretty young. You can tell that she truly regretted treating her real son like shit. Caring for Tim might've been her way of atonement. When the group first discovers that the world has been fucked, Mr. Semi Badass planed to kill Tim while he was asleep simply because Tim's a child, and he should die in his sleep instead of waking up to the shit of reality. Thankfully, he was stopped by Katherine who defends saying that it's because Tim IS a child, and that's why he should live. Someone actually interrupted them but let's just take it as Katherine's win. Because I'm bias and I liked her character a lot. She's like a sister to Kasumi too. She gave her some love advise after noticing her constant worries about Marco. Her advise shed some light on her life before entering the lab. She was probably cheated and was left with Michael. Katherine basically said that there has to be trust on both sides. Kasumi clearly trusts Marco. But does he trust Kasumi? Drama ensues! (It happens shortly later on between Kasumi and Marco! But he does feel bad for being harsh to her). The ultimate sacrifice Katherine makes to save everyone, especially Tim, was to stab herself, use herself as an offering to the Medusa virus. She becomes a harpy which protects the group, namely Tim, with all she can. She then survives to the end.
Medusa virus. It's not exactly a virus as believed. It's more of a "shapeless presence" (quoted from Wiki). The Medusa initially arrived on Earth by a meteor shower. A meteor that was not completely burned by the atmosphere upon entering Earth. It landed in Siberia, infecting a little boy and his animal in the process. After some time, his entire family, save his younger sister, died under mysterious circumstances. The girl, Alice, burned the house down after trapping "Laloo" inside. Confusing? Laloo is her imaginary friend, so she believes. It takes on a human form with cat features. Its face was never really shown but it has cat ears and tail. If it was her friend, why did she burn it along with her house? After her family died, she caught Laloo eating her brother's reindeer. So she locked Laloo in the house and set it on fire. That way, Medusa was infected to the whole world via smoke, but in a really dilute amount. What does this have to do with Medusa?
Alicia confessed to have been abused by her family. From there, she had a dissociative identity disorder, and used Laloo as a way to endure her harsh life. A split personality, probably.
This is purely my point of view.
Medusa is something which reacts with very strong emotions. And imagination. Alicia's imaginary friend "Laloo" was born because of Medusa. The imagination grows inside the host before finally giving birth by detaching itself from the host. As for Katherine's case, she stabbed herself after declaring that she will protect them (or something). Her Medusa form is the very embodiment of motherly love. She hugs Tim lovingly even after she has "died". She protects Tim, as mentioned, and obtained numerous amount of injuries from doing so. The group reaches a safe place and treats "Katherine"'s wounds. As she is unable to move, Tim decides to stay with her. Mr Semi Macho and Kasumi (they were the group at that point) agree as it is more safer for Tim to remain with "Katherine" than with them. There is also other cases of Medusa "afterlife".
There's the nerdy scientist/engineer dude. His name's Peter. You can obviously tell he's a smartass especially after he created the first cold sleep capsule. It was considered as his greatest invention but it was forcibly taken away from him by the company that was funding him. Well, you tend to have an obsession and attachment over what you consider to be your greatest achievement, right? That's the exact case for Peter. The man in the story yet he was still seen around the manga. Turns out that he was still around because of his obsession to retrieve that machine. His Medusa was a replica of himself, except that he was made up of cockroaches. It's not that he was randomly made up of it. The Medusa was made out of cockroaches simply because HE himself thought himself as that. The statement that the Medusa takes form of one's personal impression is greatly reinforced here. Also, the Medusa can survive as long as there's energy for it. It is shown when Alice found Laloo eating her brother's deer.
Marco Owen died. Once. However, even in Death, he's still manly! He turned his back on Death (literally) and came back to life! But hey, your body's obviously gonna be battered after you get smacked around by a large monster, stabbed by a spear in your gut, and lastly, being flung off a cliff (I still wonder where the fuck did this cliff come from. It's INSIDE the building). An awfully "good" condition he has there! He's manly because, damn! Despite knowing all that damage on his body, Marco still chose to go back to life! Why? To save Kasumi. He's rather fortunate that Alice ran into his body after he was flung off the cliff. She gave him the last of her life and restored his body back to health. The fatigue still remains though. Mr. Macho said it himself!
Alice is the person who realized Medusa's true nature, just that she wasn't conscious of it. That's how "Laloo" was born after all. So, to be exact, she is the first person to do so. Shit happens when you're the first person to discover something. So, shit happens to her. Pictures of Alice in the initial stages where she had just entered the lab showed her to be a perfectly normal girl. She's first seen around the manga sneering at the survivors attempt to live. Wait. Before you call her a bitch, there's more to it. Alice may look like a grown woman currently but that's just her "ghost". Alice eventually leads Kasumi to the lab she's currently in. There, you discover that shit had hit the fan for her, and if that's not enough, the shit's getting propelled all across the room thanks to the fan, and eventually hits your face. What Kasumi sees gives her a shock despite saying that she'll never get shocked again. Turns out that Alice's body never grew. She's still a child with gazzilion fukken tubes protruding out of her. Oh, did I mention that she only has a heart and single lung left in her torso? Yup, Alice's real body now only holds a single hand and her head. Fuck you scientists. Seriously, fuck you. The "ghost" is nothing more than a projection so naturally, Alice could not help them even if she wanted to. She has a cute, large (SERIOUSLY LARGE) bunny rabbit she created as her bodyguard. It's adorable :3
I have not mentioned Mr. Semi Macho yet, have I? His name's Ron. In the beginning before the survivors enter Level 4, he is reaaaally.. a fatalist. One minute he's like "Do our best to survive!" but when he discovers (thinks, actually) that there's no hope for survival, he immediately gives up. Example: He actually sat down on the staircase and told everyone to move on into Level 4 since there's no point in actually curing the Medusa disease since they're on an island full of monsters and there's no means of leaving it too. Well, there's really not a single vehicle in sight that could be used to escape so well, he probably thought "I'm already fucked so why am I gonna cure myself just to fuck my life even longer?". Indeed. Even if he was cured from Medusa, he's just gonna spend the remainder of his life saving his own ass from the monsters until he decides to commit suicide by being eaten or throwing himself into the sea. I like how you think! Thankfully, he graduates from Mr. Whiny-Yet-Semi-Macho to Mr. Semi-Macho. He discovers that his will to survive was even stronger than he thought while escaping from two monsters. I mean, seriously, is there any person on Earth who will truly wish to die if you know that hope exists?
There are things intentionally left unmentioned such as Kasumi's real identity. And Zeus, Marco's greatest rival in the world of hacking. But before I end the long post, I would love to fangirl on Marco and Kasumi's relationship. It's my blog, and I'm free to talk about anything as long as it doesn't offend anyone. Not that I care if people get offended either. Concerning the "Senator" part, I called his fat ass simply because he's fat and was an ass in constantly reminding everyone that he was a motherfucking senator. Yes, yes, he's a senator but what the hell can he do when there's no one to support him? He's just another man when he's outside. And I'm guessing where ever he's from, his country's government is probably fucked by then.
Back to Marco and Kasumi :3
Despite the age gap, I still believe that he and Kasumi can be together. It's not like Marco's super old or anything. He's probably in his mid-twenties, judging from how he looks before he entered prison. He looked rather similar to Hei (Darker than Black. Lol, it's the same person who created this manga and did the character designs for the DtB series). Kasumi can probably be assumed to be a high school student though. That age gap isn't really that huge now. The real problem with the gap is that society frowns upon it for some reason you can go figure out yourself. Love is something that consists of people understanding and trusting each other. Mr. Macho may look all macho and GAR but seriously, he looked better before he entered prison. And those tattoos? Don't get me started on it. Kasumi's cute though. You don't love someone based on their looks, but their personality (but still, Marco actually does look hot lol). Exactly. Kasumi fell for Marco not because he's all badass. It's because he was someone she could trust, someone she could knew she could rely on. And Marco? Like it or not, she's saved his ass a few times before. But not in such a manly manner like how he did though. It'll be weird if she did. She's also reliable to him. And she's absurdly kind. Selfless too. Did I mention "brave"? No? Good, include that in. Kasumi wasn't one of those whiny people who despaired and she trusted Marco a great deal. Marco, too, trusted Kasumi in the end. He trusted her enough that she wouldn't break down even if she discovered the truth about herself (which Marco somehow, seriously, somehow knew). I don't really know how to link the parts together but he trusts her. Things go a very long way with trust and understanding.
Also, I'm a fan of relationships like these so OBVIOUSLY it has my support! 8D
No comments:
Post a Comment